How many tractor hours per year?

PCABE5 · Nov 25, 2020

Avenger said:
Some people start their tractors in the morning and let it idle most of the day while they are working around the tractor, never shutting it off.

Seen that myself plus the hour meter runs faster at idle from every tractor I've seen. Makes sense as you'd change your oil sooner.

Location plays a big part in the number of hours. I believe the OP lives in Florida so he can do a lot more year round. Here there's not much going on here November to March except snow removal.

Retired or still working also factors in or if you are an actual farmer who puts on a lot of hours.

wheelbuilder · Nov 25, 2020

Before I bought the Bolens/Iseki, I was putting about 150+ hours a year on the craftsman gt. The Bolens apparently saves me about 50 hours a year doing the same stuff. Either the hour meters are off between the 2, or more likely, I can get stuff done faster with the bigger Bolens. Kind of a shame, I like working with the Bolens.

bearthebruce · Nov 25, 2020

PCABE5 said:
Location plays a big part in the number of hours. I believe the OP lives in Florida so he can do a lot more year round. Here there's not much going on here November to March except snow removal.

Retired or still working also factors in or if you are an actual farmer who puts on a lot of hours.

Location, land purpose, live on or weekend get away, farm/non-farm - all those play a factor.

We do not use our machine from December thru Feb - usually our place is not occupied those months. It's cold enough that us city slickers are not out on the land with the exception of me.. partly why they call me the bear.. but bears do hibernate when it gets cold. Working full time to run an international business, finding time to work the land is often 2nd fiddle. Just need a 36 hour day.. then maybe we could get more work done on the land and run our tractor more!

DK35vince · Nov 25, 2020

PCABE5 said:
Seen that myself plus the hour meter runs faster at idle from every tractor I've seen. Makes sense as you'd change your oil sooner.

Many tractors are just the opposite.
The tractors I have owned were both mechanical hour meters (need to run at or near PTO RPM for 1 hour to equal 1 hour on the meter).
Lower than PTO RPM equals slower time registered on the meter per hour, not faster.
I would have to idle for over 2 hours to register 1 hour on the meter.

Bocephous · Nov 26, 2020

oosik said:
My tractor lives in a LARGE unheated carport. I have more than enough problems with mice & chipmunks in this carport stall. If it were heated - might as well put up the "Open House" signs for the rodents. I recently acquired a farm cat and the rodent situation is in serious abeyance.

Peter - I would like to take credit for being able to retire early. It's simply not the case. I tend to spend like a drunken sailor. My wife takes care of all the finances and keeps me in line. She deserves all the credit. My spending was a rather sore subject. Up until the day she showed me that I could retire and we could live quite well.

Mine lives in a non-heated garage and I keep the hood up, battery tender attached, and it seems to keep the rodent problem at bay (I live in the corner of a field and have a lot of mice). I also have a five gallon bucket mouse trap that catches the occasional mouse. An outdoor cat would be nice, but my wife would have a problem with the outdoor part and our dogs would not play nice, in all likelyhood.

tmcj · Nov 26, 2020

Same here, about 100 hours per year. Some brushogging, plowing snow, occasionally mowing with it, whatever chores or projects I feel like getting it into around the house or for family and friends. FEL, backhoe, rear blade, mower, brush hog, all get used now and then.

I've always had a tractor at my disposal whether it was the family's Super C, M, or my own Max 26xl for the last few years. I can't imagine life without a tractor, lol.

buck12 · Nov 26, 2020

bearthebruce said:
Location, land purpose, live on or weekend get away, farm/non-farm - all those play a factor. !

Yes, those are definitely factors. Last year I put about 75 hours on my tractor. It would be far more hours if we lived full time on our property. If I could come home from work and hop on the tractor for an hour, my property would look far better and the tractor would get many more hours. My little JD GT 235 (no hour meter) at our home probably gets as many hours as my tractor simply because it’s at our full time residence.

Another factor is that those of us in certain areas don’t have to plow snow. Once it gets cold and wet my tractor gets limited use until spring.

firemen122 · Nov 29, 2020

Around 600-750 hours per year on the 2 main tractors. 1-200 on the others.

5030 · Nov 30, 2020

500-750 a season on each of mine but could be a lot less, depends on the weather. if it's hot and sticky, the cabin tractor gets the meter time. If it's mild, the open station gets the meter time. All depends on M other Nature.

deserteagle71 · Nov 30, 2020

Funny thing about tractor usage. When all I had was my ancient John Deere/open station I was averaging approximately 100 hours a year on it. Then I got the Kubota with the cab - that thing is such a pleasure to operate that I'm constantly finding reasons to get in it and run it no matter what the weather, so I'm putting about 150 hours a year on it. Yet...I still manage to put ~ 100 hours a year on the John Deere also. So I guess I'm enjoying my tractor time!

big bubba · Nov 30, 2020

to me the # of annual hrs doesn't have much meaning. as long as each task allows the engine to warm up properly & work at least 30 minutes or more for each session.
cold starts & short runs are hard on diesels, fouls engine oil quicker. i let engine idle a few minutes after each use to cool down, esp w/turbos

only my opinion: an engine w/ 50 annual hrs of repeated cold short runs is harder on an engine than one w/100+ annual hrs that has been fully worked for each task w/proper warm up & cool down
more qualitative than quantitative i guess for accumulated hrs each year imho

Tractorable · Nov 30, 2020

People have different lives. I’m not retired, work full time, long commute, leave the house at dawn, get home after dark, have to run errands on the weekends, wife wants to do stuff, sometimes need to travel for work, then it rains for a week, blah blah blah, I’m a busy guy.

When I retire all I want to do is drive around on my tractor, it’s my therapy, but until then I gotta do what I gotta do, and the tractoring has to wait.

stevewarner1957 · Dec 1, 2020

60 hrs/yr on my L3830HST. Mowing, tilling, firewood handling are its main functions. It’s been a fantastic tractor, the original battery lasted 13 years. It still looks and runs like new

Rock Crawler · Dec 1, 2020

200 hours a year on my little B2650, but after next year that should drop to very little hours. I am in the end stages of my land fill work.

My co-worker has a 10 year old Kubota that he brings out to hog his 2 acre yard 3 or 4 times a year, he has around 150 hours on it in all this time.

We all do our thing. I seem like I am changing oil every 2-3 months. I do not plow with it, I use a Mule Pro diesel for plowing.

Peter 315 · Dec 1, 2020

stevewarner1957 said:
60 hrs/yr on my L3830HST. Mowing, tilling, firewood handling are its main functions. Itç—´ been a fantastic tractor, the original battery lasted 13 years. It still looks and runs like new

It still has the paint on the bucket I guess not much dirt work.....

bearthebruce · Dec 1, 2020

Tractorable said:
People have different lives. I’m not retired, work full time, long commute, leave the house at dawn, get home after dark, have to run errands on the weekends, wife wants to do stuff, sometimes need to travel for work, then it rains for a week, blah blah blah, I’m a busy guy.

When I retire all I want to do is drive around on my tractor, it’s my therapy, but until then I gotta do what I gotta do, and the tractoring has to wait.

I hear ya. I am there too but probably will not retire until I am 70 at which point I wonder will there be anything left in the tank for tractoring....

Cat_Driver · Dec 1, 2020

Engine meters keep track of your engine's operating hours. Generally, engine meters turn on automatically when the engine is turned on and turn off automatically when the engine is turned off. You can use the total engine hours on your vehicle to estimate how many miles you've traveled since the last meter reset. It's an approximation, at best.
Step 1

Determine how many hours have accumulated on your engine.

Step 2

Multiply the amount of hours on your engine by 60.

Use the number you come up with to estimate how many miles are on your engine. For example, 1,235 hours on an engine equates to approximately 74,100 miles.

sea2summit · Dec 1, 2020

Cat_Driver said:
Engine meters keep track of your engine's operating hours. Generally, engine meters turn on automatically when the engine is turned on and turn off automatically when the engine is turned off. You can use the total engine hours on your vehicle to estimate how many miles you've traveled since the last meter reset. It's an approximation, at best.
Step 1

Determine how many hours have accumulated on your engine.

Step 2

Multiply the amount of hours on your engine by 60.

Use the number you come up with to estimate how many miles are on your engine. For example, 1,235 hours on an engine equates to approximately 74,100 miles.

???? What do 杜iles on an engine have to do with anything? And how fast do you have to drive to get an average speed of 60? My MC keeps track of overall average speed and it痴 under 45 most of the time and it absolutely doesn稚 get driven slow.

The engine doesn稚 care about miles. It spins the same number of times in an hour of driving in 1st gear as it does in an hour of 5th gear. Time is all that matters, if people in vehicles cared more (or if it mattered more) they would track running hours not mileage for maintenance.

NoTrespassing · Dec 1, 2020

I barely use my tractor but can't be without it due to road maintenance and snow removal. I also till gardens but that takes almost no time at all. I cut back on mowing some our acres to once every 3 years to keep the junk trees down.

I bought it used in 2003 with something like 350 hours on it at 4 years old (it's a 1999). It now has about 780 hours for an average of less than 25 hrs. per year since I bought it. I probably use it less than 10 hours per year now so the average will continue to drop.

I think it's still worth about what I paid for it 17 years ago.

Kevin